Samsung PRAM Reaches Production in June

[btarunr]

Silicon giant Samsung is making PRAM a reality next month, after its announcement back in 2006. PRAM, or phase-change random-access memory, uses a technique of phase-transition of chalcogenide glass to store data. The active component can quickly change its form from crystalline, to micro-crystalline (amorphous), when subjected to charge. The cycle takes place so quickly, that it can be used to store and deliver data at speeds up to 30 times higher that NAND or NOR flash memory, and support write-cycles at least 10-times higher than the two.

The best of both NOR and NAND are on offer: the random-access speeds of NOR, and the permanent-storage of NAND. The first line of PRAM chips from Samsung are set for mass-production in June. It will arrive in capacities of 512 MB. On its application front, so far no other companies have announced products that can utilize the new technology, nor has such an announcement come from Samsung, but the company will definitely need a few "launch-vehicles" for PRAM in the very near future.



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[kyle2020]

I just assumed from the title that samsung had made some form of tech infested buggy for babies

 

[Mussels]

i'm sensing some really uber SSD's coming from this... DRAM speeds on non volatile material? Drooooool.

 

[DrPepper]

I wonder if this would actually make an impact on gamers and enthusiasts performance wise, My guess is no.

 

[Mussels]

I wonder if this would actually make an impact on gamers and enthusiasts performance wise, My guess is no.

it'll be next-next gen SSD's. SATA 3, 600MB/s dealios

 

[DrPepper]

it'll be next-next gen SSD's. SATA 3, 600MB/s dealios

I thought it was the next generation of RAM for motherboards.

 

[Imsochobo]

can't seem to cling in my head, with crystals forming etc, but its just how it sounds like in my head.

Samsung just makes a cool video, like their sheep led videos or ssd awesomeness video and convince me with abit of laugh and wowness.

For those who havnt seen those:

SSD awesomeness-Samsung

Extreme Sheep LED Art-Samsung

 

[Hayder_Master]

speeeeeeeed , i like it

 

[PCpraiser100]

Hurry up Samsung! I can't wait!

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

This would be awsome, not only for solid state drives but also for 'instant on' PC's. You no longer need to load the OS from the hard drive if your system ram doesn't get wiped clean on power down.

 

[Frizz]

Samsung never fails to disappoint .

 

[Sasqui]

This would be awsome, not only for solid state drives but also for 'instant on' PC's. You no longer need to load the OS from the hard drive if your system ram doesn't get wiped clean on power down.

+1 Yessss...

They compare the speed to existing non volitile ram - how does it compare to todays DDR speeds?

 

[tkpenalty]

wow damn... this could mean that PCs in the future would have RAM & HDD storage combined together.

 

[Mussels]

wow damn... this could mean that PCs in the future would have RAM & HDD storage combined together.

ram will probably always remain seperate, for the faster interface.

 

[iStink]

ram will probably always remain seperate, for the faster interface.

So you don't think the hard drive access and write speeds will ever equal or surpass ram technology? If it did, why wouldn't it be faster for the ram to be taken out of the picture? The whole reason we have ram is because it's so much faster than accessing the hard drive right? Well if accessing the hard drive is as fast as accessing the ram, then there's no more need for ram. The system would need to work less actually, so speed would be improved, right?

Sorry, maybe I'm just too ignorant as to how fast permanent storage can get, but if the technology gets there, am I wrong to assume that's how it will work?

 

[BazookaJoe]

Going to have to start putting yer SSD Card/Drive in 16X slots soon - going to need more slots :\

Edit : Yeah .. imagine that too... finally merging ram and permanent storage - no need for ram anymore - just use a swap file... yer HDD IS ram.

I still think a small amount of dedicated ram is still a good idea, a couple of gigs or so, just like how video cards are far better off with dedicated ram... but once yer swap file works at ram speeds, would you ever truly need to buy more?

 

[Mussels]

So you don't think the hard drive access and write speeds will ever equal or surpass ram technology? If it did, why wouldn't it be faster for the ram to be taken out of the picture? The whole reason we have ram is because it's so much faster than accessing the hard drive right? Well if accessing the hard drive is as fast as accessing the ram, then there's no more need for ram. The system would need to work less actually, so speed would be improved, right?

Sorry, maybe I'm just too ignorant as to how fast permanent storage can get, but if the technology gets there, am I wrong to assume that's how it will work?

as storage tech advances, so does ram speed. remember that mere DDR2 is many GB's a second, and its latency measured in nanoseconds.

Even if they used the same technology, one will be optimised for speed, one for reliability - so theres a potential for ram and HDD's to be the same technology, but implemented differently.

Also, you need ram when you power on modern PC's... if its on the HDD, they'd need to redesign the entire thing (how do you 'format' the HDD and assign ram vs storage?)

 

[Random Murderer]

huh. reminds me of the old intel 8086 processor.

 

[lemonadesoda]

So you don't think the hard drive access and write speeds will ever equal or surpass ram technology? If it did, why wouldn't it be faster for the ram to be taken out of the picture? The whole reason we have ram is because it's so much faster than accessing the hard drive right? Well if accessing the hard drive is as fast as accessing the ram, then there's no more need for ram. The system would need to work less actually, so speed would be improved, right?

Sorry, maybe I'm just too ignorant as to how fast permanent storage can get, but if the technology gets there, am I wrong to assume that's how it will work?

CPU cache will always be faster than solid state storage technology (hard drive).

And system RAM can always be build to be a technological "combination" of the best of storage technology and cache technology. Therefore system RAM will always be faster than storage technology in the optimal "workstation". Price will also be somewhere inbetween the $ cost of cache and $ cost of storage.

However, your argument is valid for the "discount" or "microsize" segments.

 

[boogerlad]

i hope this is less expensive compared to nand. It'd be great in ssds!

 

[BazookaJoe]

Heh - this will be great ANYWHERE no-matter how they use it - I just REALLY hope they start actually using it, SOON.

 

[Haytch]

For now, i just want to know the life expectancy of that 512Mb PRAM, and what it ends up really being.

That, and that alone will allow me to further consider the next generation use for this technology.

So far, it sounds promising, and Samsung always have my attention. It almost reminds me of something HP developed this time last year.